Sugar and Spice
by Lucy May
Summary: Too much time off seems to be making Shuichi act strangely, but Yuki's not complaining. Yuki/Shu fluff.


"C'mon, Yuki! It'll be fun," Shuichi coaxed, looking at him upside down from where he leaned his head back on the kitchen chair.

"Sorry, I don't remember how to play Old Maid," Yuki muttered, staying resolutely on the couch in the living room.

"Not Old Maid, poker," Shuichi stressed, ignoring the dig. "Come on! You just said you were bored and that there's nothing good on TV on Sunday."

Yuki grunted, flipping through the channels, determined to contradict his own assessment. That seemed to buy him some peace. Shuichi fell silent in his pleas for attention, as Yuki pretended to find entertainment in a game show.

After clearing a few categories of trivia questions in his mind, and rolling his eyes repeatedly as the contestants failed to answer them correctly, he looked towards the silent kitchen. He didn't want to jinx it, but he did need a beer. Leaving the couch with a heavy sigh, he looked through the open kitchen door, to find the brat quietly working away at the table. Eyes narrowed, he walked into the room to see Shuichi carefully laying one card atop another in neat little rows in a game of solitaire.

"Mika got those to annoy me. It worked," Yuki commented, seeing the pictures of scantily clad women that graced the back of the previously unopened deck. "Where the hell did you find those, anyway?"

"Hmm?" Shuichi murmured, looking up from his game. "Oh, they were in the pocket of one of your old jackets."

Shuichi had oddly gotten the bug to do spring cleaning last week, including getting everything in his closet dry-cleaned. Bad Luck were taking a break after their latest tour, and it seemed the little singer was getting stir-crazy. Oh, well, better he take it out on the apartment then on me, Yuki thought.

"Where did you learn to play poker, anyway?" Yuki asked, getting his beer and watching the calm, methodic way Shuichi laid out the deck. He found it unsettling to see Shuichi sit so still for so long.

"K taught me. It gave us something to do on the tour bus," Shuichi said, laying down another card. "You know who's really good at it? Suguru. K said he'd created a monster."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Yuki said, picturing Seguchi's young protégé. He sat across from Shuichi, watching his smile of satisfaction as he completed a row.

"So, what are the stakes?" Yuki said, placing his beer on the table.

Shuichi turned his face up with a look of surprise that faded into one of triumph, his violet eyes sparkling. He deftly swept the cards into a stack, shuffling them with a fluid grace that gave Yuki pause.

"I dunno," Shuichi said with a coy smirk. "What do you want?"

_Shuichi was good_, Yuki had to admit to himself after countless hands had been played. Yuki was better, of course, but Shuichi had still managed to catch him off guard on a few rounds. Yuki was duly impressed at his spastic little lover's practiced ability to control himself. And God did he enjoy it when the boy lost a hand with these stakes…

"See? Wasn't that fun, Yuki?" Shuichi licked his lips and purred, getting up off his knees before him and slipping into his lap.

And Yuki had to admit something else to himself: It had been.

OoOoO

"What the hell are you doing?" Yuki turned in his chair and asked in exasperation as Shuichi passed his office on the way to the laundry room for the third time. Shuichi stopped, with a sheepish grin. _Was that a garden hose strewn over his shoulder?_

"I'm sorry. Am I being too noisy?" Shuichi asked. _Why is he dressed like that?_ Yuki wondered, looking at the shrunken tee shirt and cut off jean shorts the boy wore.

"Where are you going with that?" Yuki asked, referring to the garden hose, but still not quite taking his eyes off the outfit.

"Well, it was supposed to be a surprise," Shuichi said with a pout, "but I thought I'd wash your car."

"I see," Yuki said, unsure how to respond. "Well, be sure to roll the windows up first, moron." Shuichi rolled his eyes and gave an indignant little huff, before skipping back on his way towards the front door.

Yuki tried and failed to regain his concentration, pushing away from the desk. He didn't know whether he should think that the brat needed more breaks like this, since he'd proven to be so oddly productive, or of he should be calling Hiro to come take the brat somewhere to distract him since he'd obviously lost his mind.

He shuffled into the kitchen, noting what a pleasant, sunny day it was outside as he got a drink, his mind straying back to the way those shorts had clung to Shuichi as he'd gone by. He loved that car, he reasoned. He'd probably better supervise.

Squinting in the sunlight, Yuki found that Shuichi had already worked up quite a lather on the hood of the black car, leaning forward over it, his pert little behind wiggling as he scrubbed, hose in one hand and sponge in the other.

"Not so hard. You'll scratch the paint," Yuki warned, his voice a bit lower than he'd intended.

Shuichi reeled around in fright, not having heard him approach, and promptly soaked Yuki with the hose, cigarette and all. His eyes wide with terror, he froze, the droplets of water falling from he tips of his pink hair catching the sunlight as they rolled down the collar of his thin, damp shirt. Yuki cursed, throwing the soggy cigarette to the ground, and stalked towards his skittish prey.

"I'm so sorry," Shuichi whimpered, ducking his head like preparing for a blow, before being hoisted onto the hood of the car with a startled squeak.

"Since you already got me wet anyway," Yuki murmured, pressing him back and cutting off any further apologies.

Soaking wet but fully sated, the pair began to fall asleep on the warm leather backseat of the car, as Yuki was beyond caring about what state it was in.

"But I never got your car clean," Shuichi protested over a wide yawn.

"More fun making it dirty again," Yuki muttered, closing his eyes.

OoOoO

The problem with finding a way to greet Yuki at the door with a sexy surprise, was that Yuki was always home, Shuichi thought, as he turned the frozen steaks over in the pan. He gave a little yelp, as the steak popped and splashed him on the chest. Maybe he should have waited until he was done cooking before he got naked, he thought with a frown.

Luckily for him, Yuki had to step out to see his editor, and Shuichi leapt on the opportunity. Sure, the cooking dinner thing and the sexy greeting thing were two different ideas, but he thought it very creative of him combine them. After all, he didn't get this chance every day.

The phone rang, and Shuichi turned the heat down before gracefully leaping for it. This prancing around the house naked thing was ridiculously fun, he thought to himself with a giggle, as he picked up the receiver.

Except when it's your mom calling, Shuichi thought with a blush as Mrs. Shindou's voice greeted him cheerfully, asking if he was being a good boy. Shuichi grabbed the frilly apron that Tohma kept here for his own strange reasons off a hook in the kitchen, tying it around his waist quickly, as if his mother would somehow know that he was naked.

It turned out to be a very good thing she had called after all, Shuichi thought later when he hung up the phone after asking his mother for advice on cooking a good steak.

Advice which hadn't included how to work around a very late Yuki, Shuichi thought, feeling near tears as he curled up on the couch two hours later.

OoOoO

Yuki felt relieved to finally be free of the boring, stuffy meeting with his editor, who hadn't warned him that the publisher himself just happened to be dropping by and was in the mood for cocktails. He really hadn't been in the mindset for that crap today, he thought, turning the key in the lock.

Well, at least it looked like the brat hadn't burned the house down while he was out. Or had he tried? Yuki could have sworn he smelled cooking, as he entered the room.

Following his nose, he bypassed the front room in favor of the kitchen, wondering what Shuichi was up to. He wasn't there, but Yuki did find a platter with a surprisingly appetizing looking, if cold, steak, and a bowl of tossed salad. He ventured in to the living room, his eyebrow considerably raised at the sight of Shuichi, completely naked except for a frilly apron, sleeping peacefully on the couch.

He stepped towards him, as an open magazine slid to the floor at his feet, catching his eye. It looked like one of those rags for women full of sex and fashion tips that Mika was always reading, he thought, picking it up.

"_Spice Things Up! How to Keep Your Man Hopelessly in Love with You!" _proclaimed the headline of the article, which listed off numerous ideas to try with your lover.

"_1. Invite him to play some one-on-one poker, a game that can have some very sexy stakes!_

_2. Show him that you appreciate him by washing his car. Dress sexy for it, and the car won't be the only thing getting lathered up!_

_3. How about greeting him at the door in nothing but a smile?_

_4. Give your man a nice, manly steak dinner._

_5. Two words: sensual massage!_

_6. Make him a very special desert. Sound dull? Then take it to the bedroom and serve it on your stomach!"_

Yuki blanched, staring at the article in disbelief. Did Shuichi really think he had to try this hard? He rolled up the magazine in annoyance, preparing to swat the boy awake, when Shuichi stirred, blinking up at him with a sweet, bleary expression.

"Yuki?" Shuichi asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, before seeming to realize how very naked and silly he must look, and blushing deeply. "Oh, you were late, and I was kinda --"

"Planning something, brat?" Yuki said, dropping the magazine and sitting on the couch beside him, running a hand over his thigh.

"Yeah, but it got spoiled," Shuichi said, biting his lip. "I had you a nice dinner made, and now it's all cold, and I wanted --"

Yuki shushed him gently, playing with the hem of the apron, and pushing it upwards.

"If you'd come to the door like that, dinner would have gotten cold anyway," Yuki murmured, biting Shuichi's ear. Shuichi laughed uneasily, and gave a tiny moan.

"Yeah, I guess it would have," Shuichi said, leaning his neck to give better access.

Yeah, he did feel a little irritated with Shuichi's moronic idea of using something as stupid as one of Mika's magazines to reassure himself of Yuki's love. It raised questions. It made the novelist wonder if Shuichi thought all this was really necessary. But right now, an argument about the state of their relationship was the last thing on his agenda. He'd put it off until a more appropriate time. Like after Shuichi had tried the desert thing. He really liked the sound of that one.

_A/N: Gravitation and its characters belong to the goddess, Maki Murakami. Although a couple of the ideas were inspired by real articles of this nature, the article itself is entirely of my own invention._


End file.
